


Already Gone

by danny_the_coolest



Series: House o' Dreams [4]
Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, it ends kinda abruptly bc i didn't know how to end it lol, sorry for this, this is only angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27273841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danny_the_coolest/pseuds/danny_the_coolest
Summary: Shirbert au where Anne doesn't see Gilbert's letter and Gilbert doesn't come back for her. Years later both moved on and married to someone else having children and all they meet again by accident, but it’s too late.
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Series: House o' Dreams [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871320
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Already Gone

“Joy, please be careful!”

Anne runs after her oldest daughter, skillfully pulling her toddler along with one hand and keeping her baby safe in the other.

“Remember what dad told you last time! If you injure yourself–”

The young girl crashes against a stranger, falling flat on her butt. The tall man turns around and quickly kneels in front of the kid, making sure she’s alright. Anne gasps as her stomach sink with dread and almost sprints to where her daughter has fallen.

“Joy!” She exclaims. “Good lord, I’m so sorry Sir, my daughter gets so distracted when I take her to a stroll…”

“It’s okay, don’t worry,” The man replied, helping her daughter up. “I should’ve seen where I was going too, I was too busy looking for…”

His sentence dies as soon as their eyes meet. Anne feels something she hasn’t felt in years as she drinks in the look of the man in front of her. Broad shoulders, and the faintest shadow of a moustache peering on his face, his hair is almost exactly the same as she remembers, but his eyes hold more to them, and she never thought that could be possible, but they look far sadder than they used to.

“Anne,” He breathes.

“Gilbert,” She replies, and it comes out with a confused chuckle. “I must be dreaming.”

“If that’s the case then it must be my dream,” He blinks, his smile growing. “I thought…”

“I’d never see you again,” She finished. “But here we are…”

“Yes,” He looks down at the girl, he notices she’s still holding his hand, and she’s looking at him with eager curiosity with a pair of familiar green eyes. He looks up, beaming. “Are all of them yours?”

“Yes,” Anne hugs her baby tighter, not knowing why she feels almost ashamed. “You musn’t judge me, Gilbert. I’ve had them by choice, and they make me very happy.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Gilbert shakes his head. “Congrats, I mean, I guess it’s all news to you, but they’re really beautiful, they’re…” he struggles to say the word, but pushes forward for the sake of the conversation. “They’re father must be quite proud of such beautiful children.”

“Roy loves them with every fibre of his being,” Anne is abruptly pulled back from this marvellous fantasy. Of course, she’s married, she’s been married for ten years to a good man. “What about you? You and Winnie must have about ten of these?”

“Oh,” Gilbert tilts his head in confusion. “But certainly you should know… I never married Miss Rose, Anne.”

“What?” She exclaims. “What do you mean?”

“I-I told you,” Gilbert blinks. “The letter, didn’t you read it?”

Anne’s been angry at herself multiple times throughout her life, but nothing compares to the shock and impotence that washes over her at his words.

“The letter?” She inquires weakly.

“I left you a letter, it said that I was not engaged to her, and I would never be… unless, well…” He glanced awkwardly to the little girl holding his hand, then continued in a whisper. “Unless it was to you.”

“Oh.”

Anne’s lip quivers, and she feels her own reality crumble, the wall she’d built after convincing herself that Gilbert had never really loved her is now useless as she stands in front of the man that hunted her dreams for the first years of college. Always wondering, in the end she’d believed her own life, and since no one had really heard of Gilbert in the years to come, she could only assume he’d gone to Paris to live his dream. What a mess she’d created…

“Of course, you must understand I wrote all that nonsense when I was young and too emotional for my own good,” Gilbert continued, adopting a stern tone. “Two years ago I met a fine woman, and we got married last spring. We’re about to have our firstborn.”

“Oh,” She repeated in a tone of helplessness. “I’m… so happy for you, Gilbert.”

There’s an awkward silence that falls afterwards in which Anne decides to come clean.

“I wrote to you too,” She says quietly

“I heard,” Gilbert sighed. “But I… I thought it would’ve been unfair to chase after you, you were starting a new life, a new cycle. You needed to build your own life and I was part of your past already… I said to myself _‘if it’s meant to be love will find a way’_ ,” He let out a bitter laugh. “It seems that whatever that was… it was all in our heads, wasn’t it?”

“So it seems,” Anne frowns. “You should’ve gone, either way, I spent years thinking you hated me. You should’ve sent a letter. Anything.”

“What for?”

Anne lowers her gaze, her children are getting impatient and they’ll soon start to complain if she doesn’t end her chat soon. She speaks, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I ripped your letter, I never read it. I was angry and thought you were going to reject me and I… I let the worst of me take advantage,” She gulps, her lips feeling like sandy material. “But you should’ve written. I would’ve waited for you, Gil.”

Gilbert’s eyes tear up at her confession, and he looks away briefly just to calm down. He sees their reflection in the window next to him and it only hurts him further. He sees only what it could’ve been had they been a little smarter and a bit braver. He sees himself holding onto his daughter’s little hand, and he sees his wife, his Anne with an e, standing next to him, two little children on each arm, happy, fulfilled, whole.

He knows he’ll never be able to forget this sight. Why didn’t he run after the only girl he’d ever loved with all he was? He was witnessing the birth of a living ghost. They would part ways and he would have to live with the knowledge that somewhere in this world, one Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was alive and well, making a family, spending her years with a man that wasn’t him. That she’d loved him back, but he’d gotten scared.

“I’ve always been a fool,” Gilbert lets go of the girl’s hand, and she immediately holds onto her mother’s skirts. “But it’s late to regret our choices. We have families, we owe them the love we promised to give, don’t you think?”

Anne’s an expert at holding back her tears, she’s been for a few years now, because usually if she cries, Joy cries, and it takes ages to calm her down. Today, however, today she feels it’s appropriate to mourn.

“It was nice seeing you again, Anne,” He admits, smiling at her the same way he’d smiled at her that night at Miss Stacey’s porch. “Have a good life. Please.”

There’s no point on saying sorry, no point on delayed confessions or arguments, not when she’s surrounded by her little family, and not when he’s already building his.

“I hope I see you again,” She says softly. “I would love to meet your baby– and your wife, of course, she must be a remarkable woman.”

“She’s all I could ask for,” Gilbert admitted, still, he had to stop himself before saying _‘but she’s not you.’_


End file.
